One of the best modes of advertising and marketing of goods and services is via social media. Imagine today’s life without tablets or smartphones—the leap we have made would simply be impossible. Gone are the days of handwriting letters, now we live in an era where instant messaging has become the main point of communication between people from all walks of life.

As the way we communicate evolves, organisations and businesses have also re-strategized and modified their approach in reaching out to their customers and prospects. Thanks to the innovation of target ads, social media has become the most sought-after market for business activities, procuring new customers and disseminating information to an existing customer base.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing

Seeing evidence that social media marketing works doesn’t require much investigation. The facts are out there already. For example, Facebook—one of the most famous social media platform in the world—has more than 1.7 active billion users worldwide. Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook, comes in second place with half a billion active users. While Wechat boasts 806 million users, Twitter follows up the trend with about 317 million users. The list is almost endless with the likes of LinkedIn and more having literally millions of active users also. The fact that all businesses nowadays have a social media account and many have ads running on most of these platforms indicates how effective social media marketing has come to be in the modern cycle of doing business.

The Reason Why Social Media Works

Apart from the numbers mentioned earlier, there is no disputing the effectiveness of strategic social media marketing. We are social creatures, congregating where we can interact with our friends, family and also meet new people. With social media, you have the flexibility of moving back and forth in between messages without experiencing rude interruptions.

Social media gives you the best target audience, categorising your perspective and real-time customers into a “social pool” where your goods and services can be advertised to people within that pool. The marketplace is virtually unlimited in reach and turnover rate is always promising due to the effectiveness of target ads. If you are looking for the key to viral marketing, social media is the answer.

Affordability & Capabilities

Another reason that makes social media marketing very effective is the rate at which businesses can afford it and how it reaches far and wide.

For instance, Facebook witnessed a 50% increase in real-time and active advertising from the period of 2015 to 2016, going up to 3 million advertisers. Compare that to Google Ads 17% increase for the same period. Don’t also forget that Facebook is responsible for more than 65% of all social network ad spent estimated to be about $36 billion. If you had to choose an advertising platform, ads on social media make a very appealing prospect!

Also, the Cost Per Click (CPC) is significantly lower with Facebook and Instagram than you will find with Google ads. For instance, in the Australia, the average Facebook ads CPC is 10x higher than it is for Google ads clicks and the gap keeps widening. So, for medium and small businesses with a limited monthly advertising budget, running a Facebook or Instagram ads could be a better option for you.

It is clear that social media marketing is very effective these days due to their conversion rate, flexibility, simplicity, and affordability.